


Take My Heart, I'll Take your Hand

by jellytea



Category: Life with Derek
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-22
Updated: 2011-08-22
Packaged: 2017-10-22 23:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/243595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellytea/pseuds/jellytea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek does not appreciate that Casey has decided to turn him into a psuedo-Emily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take My Heart, I'll Take your Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Plain White T's "Our Time Now."
> 
> My first Dasey fic offering. The last scene of "Futuritis" set up a lot of what-ifs - this is my take. Or, what I had thought I wanted to write about, but then the fic just kind of...evolved into something else. So I think it'll take another fic for me to tackle what I originally had wanted to write about.

Casey preferred to stay in the girls' residence halls for both her freshmen and sophomore years at Queens, adamant that living in a tiny, cramped, hormonal space was better for her studying habits.

Which was crap, really, considering she was at Derek's apartment about 80% of the time.

It didn't work, by the way. Their genius plan of avoiding each other on the quad. The first day of freshmen year, Casey and Derek realized that they were in nearly all the same classes, and because Derek was Derek, he decided that Casey would be his study buddy (read: the person he would get notes from and the person who could help him with his homework), and started setting up camp in the lobby of her residence. When she realized that she would _not_ put up with him hitting on every single female person who passed by the lobby (and it wasn't her imagination, but while Derek was sprawled out on the couch, the foot traffic increased by at least tenfold), she insisted that they move their "study" sessions to his apartment, where the boy to girl ratio was at least equal.

And after a while, those study sessions turned into long hours of Casey and Derek just talking with each other. Or not talking to each other. Over cups of coffee and tea. And the mindless drone of TV humming in the background. It was unsettling. Weird, even. Then it took them to quasi live together to be able to tone down the insane fighting that had dominated the Venturi-McDonald household. (Of course, this didn't mean that their legendary fighting just disappeared. Just...went on a temporary lull, of sorts, during those hours of talking that Casey soon came to treasure.)

And if Derek cared that he had turned into her sounding board, he didn't say or do anything to make her stop. Which made what happened next a complete surprise.

"I'm a horrible person," Casey wailed, stomping the excess snow off from her boots before making her way to Derek's couch. She shucked off her puffy jacket and flopped down, covering her eyes with her hands.

"Why? Did you get a B on a paper? Did you alienate another person in your class?" he teased, carefully placing a mug filled with tea on the table in front of the couch, and settling down next to Casey.

"I'm just a horrible, horrible person who should be forbidden to make friends with girls who end up being the girlfriend of a guy I think is great," Casey mumbled.

Derek's lips tightened into a thin line. She'd been going on and on about this Dan kid she met at a friend's apartment a few weeks ago. Just endlessly gushing over his amazing hair and his great eyes and his interest in environmental law and his frigging perfect personality.

"Yeah?" he managed to grunt. "Is this Dan we're talking about?"

"Yes! So I just randomly bumped into Elise - you remember her, we studied together for that lit class last semester - and we got to talking and then she introduces me to her boyfriend and it's _Dan_. And I just stood there, speechless. And he just SMILED at me. And introduced himself like he'd never met me before. What is wrong with me?" Casey asked miserably, hugging herself.

"Case - just - stop," Derek said. Casey whipped around, glaring at him.

"What? Why? Because I'm still and ever will be Klutzilla? Who can't get a boyfriend to save her life?" she snapped. She sprang up from the couch and started pacing back and forth. "Of course. You who hasn't had a quiet Friday since the moment you stepped onto campus, you who probably have like four girls lined up to go out with this weekend, can't possibly understand why I'm having problems, can't -"

"Case!" he shouted. He made a grab at her, catching her arm and stopping her from stamping a hole into the floor.

"What!" she shouted back.

And he couldn't help himself anymore. He thought his ridiculous crush on Casey would've gone away once they'd gotten to Queens, that once he could just separate himself from her he would get his head out of the clouds and start thinking properly, that the reason why his stomach jumped and he got that pounding in his head whenever he was around her was because she was just fantastic at setting him off and because their home wasn't big enough to stave off any kind of confrontation between the two of them. But then, they had all those classes together, and he couldn't resist teasing her, so he just made himself home at her girls' residence, and then she'd just started coming over to his apartment, and it's been _two years_ and they talk all the time, and she's Casey, she's not stupid, she has to know that the only reason he makes frigging tea for her and the reason why he would voluntarily just let her talk to him about all kinds of things he's usually not interested in him is because he has...feelings...for her. Feelings that he's fifty percent sure she reciprocates, because why else would she be over all the time, making dinner for him and doing his laundry and sitting too close to him while they watch movies and leaving girly stuff in his bathroom so that his apartment always smells a little bit like Casey even when she's not here?

Derek stood up, turning so that he was looking straight down at her. He let go of her arm and brought his hand up to cup her shoulder. She stared up at him, eyes wide and he realized that she was breathing a little loudly now.

"I just - I want to try. Something," he said softly. He tilted his head, licked his lips, and gently pressed his lips against hers. She froze, her body going tense, and she breathed in sharply.

 _Oh god_ , he thought and scrambled back.

"Um. Heh. I mean. Ahem," he cleared his throat. "You're not unattractive. I, er. Was proving a point." But before he could fully back away from Casey, she smiled, and reached out to grab the front of his shirt.

"Yeah? Were you, Derek?" she asked, pulling him towards her. He blinked at her, unsure at what exactly was happening. She was smiling a little...mischievously? Her eyes were focused on his lips, and erm, that was new.

"Took you long enough," she said, right before kissing him. With an open mouth. And putting her tongue to amazing use.


End file.
